Tag: Buhari returns and roars

Given how long President Muhammadu Buhari was away on medical leave, three months, it made sense that he not just slip into the country and go back to work, but that he addressed the nation. And so he did last Monday. It was a speech that was significant not just for what he said, but also for what he could have said.

To begin with, there is the matter of “hyenas and jackals.” First lady Aisha Buhari’s had declared that her husband would soon return and drive them away from the kingdom. It was a comment that piqued Nigerians’ curiosity about possible political manoeuvrings to replace the president. But if there was such,he left no hint of it in his speech.

Perhaps, it is the way of the lion sometimes to stalk and pounce rather than roar. In that case, the battle against the hyenas and jackals may yet unfold. It is either that or the first lady may have protested too much.

What is known for now is that rather than hyenas and jackals, the president’s office was infested by rodents. As a result, the president is working out of his home while the rats are shown the way out. “Following the three-month period of disuse, rodents have caused a lot of damage to the furniture and air conditioning units,” Buhari’s aide Garba Shehu told This Day.

Buhari also said nothing about his health condition. He offered no assurance to anxious Nigerians that he is now hale and hearty to the extent that a 74-year-old can be. His sprightly steps as he strode the welcoming carpet was assuring. Yet the president looked ever gaunt, as though he added a good six inches to his height. It could well be that he was silent on his health because he had nothing assuring to say.

What Buhari dwelt on the most is what has been on the minds of all Nigerians — the growing restiveness in the country. “In the course of my stay in the United Kingdom, I have been kept in daily touch with events at home,” Buhari said. “Nigerians are robust and lively in discussing their affairs, but I was distressed to notice that some of the comments, especially in the social media have crossed our national red lines by daring to question our collective existence as a nation. This is a step too far.”

My brows involuntarily furrowed when I read the last part of this excerpt. Sure, there has been some intensification in the separatist agitation, but is questioning “our collective existence as a nation” something new? Or did Buhari merely comprehend the magnitude with the benefit of distance and the ambiance of a recuperation room?

There is at least one rhetorical contradiction in the speech. Even as he addressed separatist agitations from all over, Buhari nonetheless declared, “The national consensus is that, it is better to live together than to live apart.” It couldn’t be much of a consensus if so many groups are kicking against it, granted that consensus isn’t the same as unanimity.

Still, the president does make a powerful case with this narrative about his discussion with the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the former rebel leader turned party chieftain: “In 2003 after I joined partisan politics, the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu came and stayed as my guest in my hometown Daura. Over two days we discussed in great depth till late into the night and analysed the problems of Nigeria. We both came to the conclusion that the country must remain one and united.”

In other words, if Ojukwu stood for one Nigeria, that is a pointer to a consensus. “Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable,” Buhari said, echoing then acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

In much of the rest of the speech, Buhari touched on the same security matters he had dwelt on in his inaugural address. “Terrorists and criminals must be fought and destroyed relentlessly so that the majority of us can live in peace and safety,” the president said. “Therefore, we are going to reinforce and reinvigorate the fight … against elements of Boko Haram — which are attempting a new series of attacks on soft targets — kidnappings, farmers versus herdsmen clashes, in addition to ethnic violence fuelled by political mischief-makers. We shall tackle them all.”

In his inaugural address Buhari also vowed to crush Boko Haram and wipe out all other elements of insecurity in the country. “Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedevilling our country,” he said then. “The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land.”

That Buhari is returning virtually to the same challenges more than two years later is another indication that there’s considerable distance between political promises and their fulfillment.

Death of a pioneer comic

You are excused if the name Dick Gregory doesn’t ring a bell. The brilliant black American comic who attained fame in the early 1960s has not been in the limelight for quite some time. Yet, his death last Sunday has occasioned reflections on his legacy in pioneering the use of humour to make barbed political commentary palatable. He set the stage for succeeding generations of black American comic legends, from Redd Foxx (“Sanford and Son”) to Eddy Murphy, from Richard Pryor to Chris Rock.

Gregory chronicles his rise to fame and brand of humour in his delightfully funny autobiography, “Up From Nigger,” a play on Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, “Up From Slavery.” Gregory’s most memorable comic delivery is about an experience at a restaurant in the South in the 1950s:

“I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress walked up to me and said, ‘We don’t serve coloured people here.’ I said: ‘That’s all right. I don’t eat coloured people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.”

Gregory’s star began to dim when he intensified his political activism off the comic stage and entertainment venues began to boycott him. Even now such activism can be a career killer, as American football player Colin Kaepernick is finding out. The star quarterback was dropped by his team at the end of last season after he protested police killings of young black men by refusing to stand up for the national anthem. Usually, players of his calibre are quickly snatched up by other teams. But with the new season just underway, no team owner wants him.

Before his death, Gregory must have mused quite a bit about that.

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